Government Already Practices Rationing — and Will Do More

President Obama makes another promise: “I will make sure that no government bureaucrat or insurance company bureaucrat gets between you and the care that you need.”

No bureaucrat? Sorry, Mr. President. It’s already happening. Michael F. Cannon relays a report from a bureaucrat working within the government agency that runs Medicaid and Medicare. Cannon concludes, “If the president thinks it’s a good idea to give the federal government more power to ration medical care, he should say so. It’s a defensible position. But to claim that’s not what he’s proposing, or that the government doesn’t do that already, is a ... oh, what’s the word ...?”

“Rationing Obama-style will be done indirectly,” says John Goodman. “It will be the result of administrative decisions — all ostensibly made for the best of reasons: to eliminate futile and unnecessary care.”

Cross-posted from State House Call.

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